Where she stops, no one can say

Victoria Williams has one of those voices that you either enjoy or you can't stand. It's nasally and high-pitched at times and sounds as if it belongs to a cartoon character from the 30s. Her songs, especially her older ones (since I haven't heard a lot of her newer work) are southern yarns, tales of crazy characters from small towns. Victoria has MS and as a musician didn't have health insurance and so there was a benefit CD released for "Sweet Relief" which is an organization that was created after the tracks were laid down to provide insurance to such artists. The benefit CD is pretty interesting as it has a lot of 90s bands and artists like Pearl Jam, the Waterboys, Matthew Sweet, Evan Dando and Michael Penn covering her weird songs. Nowadays she performs with her husband, former Jayhawk Mark Olsen, as the Creekdippers. (FYI- Mark and fellow Jayhawk Gary Louris just finished doing some dates on the west coast as an acoustic duo.) These two story tracks are from the 90s Swing the Statue CD. They're very childlike and I don't just mean their content, but the instrumentation and the composition and delivery too. You either will really enjoy them or hate them, I suspect there will be little middle ground. Ditto for the kiddles.

Victoria Williams, "Tarbelly and Featherfoot"
Victoria Williams, "Boogieman"

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